CHARCOAL AS COALS

In Australia more and more regulations in National Parks and State Forests are restricting campers from having a campfire. A prime example of this is Fraser Island in Queensland where from early 2005 you are no longer allowed to have an open fire except in provided fire rings in a couple of recognised camping grounds. This is making it near impossible to make a fire for coals for the camp oven. This section shows you photographically a very simple way of using Heat Beads® as coals for your camp oven. I use an old electric frying pan to put my camp ovens in. The legs of the frying pan make it ideal for use on just about any surface and I even use mine on a glass top table on my patio. This method is suitable for all types of camp ovens. I predominantly use a Bedourie camp oven and as it does not have legs I place a trivet in the bottom to sit the coals on. This helps to rotate the air keep stop the heat beads from going out

Place the trivet in the frying pan and place the required number of charcoal briquettesin a pile and light them. In the photo I am using a type that burn by themselves without firelighters.

After lighting you need to let the charcoal briquettes burn down to coals. When ready they will have changed to a light brown colour and be covered in ash. This usually takes about 40 minutes

When your coals are burned down you need to place some on the trivet in the frying pan as well as some on the lid of the oven. As an example, with the Bedourie I place 14 charcoal briquettes on top and 9 underneath to give a good moderate oven that is around 180 degrees

Then place the camp oven into the frying pan. As you can see the Bedourie sits neatly in this old sunbeam frying pan

In the same way, as this photo shows, you can use this method with your cast iron camp oven. My nine quart oven fits nicely in the frying pan. As the cast oven has legs there is no need to use the trivet under it

As you can see this is a very easy and safe way to use charcoal briquettesin your camp oven anywhere. Be it in a camping ground or even a caravan park you can bake and roast very effectively. So get yourself an old frying pan and some charcoal briquettesand try it for yourself.